UnitedHealth Group CEO Andrew Witty is set to testify May 1 before a U.S. House subcommittee about the Feb. 21 cyberattack on the company's Change Healthcare subsidiary.
Ahead of that testimony, here are seven things to know about Mr. Witty:
1. Mr. Witty has served as UnitedHealth Group CEO since February 2021 and is also a member of the company's board of directors.
2. He was named executive vice president of UnitedHealth Group and CEO of the company's Optum arm in March 2018 after serving as a UnitedHealth Group company director. He was named UnitedHealth Group president in November 2019.
3. Mr. Witty served as CEO and a director of GlaxoSmithKline from 2008 to 2017. He joined GSK in 1985. Prior to becoming CEO, he served as president of GSK Europe.
4. From April to December 2020, Mr. Witty took an unpaid leave as a special envoy at the World Health Organization to co-lead efforts to accelerate COVID-19 response efforts.
5. He was knighted in 2012 for services to the U.K. economy.
6. With total earnings of $23.5 million, Mr. Witty was the highest-paid major payer CEO in 2023.
7. In the aftermath of the Change Healthcare cyberattack, Mr. Witty has defended UnitedHealth Group's acquisition of the company, which closed in October 2022. On an April 16 earnings call, Mr. Witty said he thinks it's important for the country that UnitedHealth Group owns Change.
"This attack would likely still have happened and it would have left Change Healthcare, I think, extremely challenged to come back," he said. "Because it was a part of UnitedHealth Group, we've been able to bring it back. We're going to bring it back much stronger than it was before."